“Miracles do not occur at random,” wrote Catherine Drinker Bowen in her history of the Constitutional Convention between May and September 1787. Among the miracles that accompanied the creation of the Constitution was the Bill of Rights, amendments added and ratified by the first Congress in 1789. Among the rights is guaranteed the freedom of the people to “peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
However, several states upset at protests primarily against pipelines and corporations, are now passing legislation that criminalize protests “that affect critical infrastructure.” To protest a pipeline in Montana will land you in jail, but you can run over a protester with a car, even kill one, and you are immune from any criminal or civil liability in Florida and Oklahoma.
Restricting the right to vote and the right to protest such laws is the tactic of people afraid of change. As a Nation, we’ve been here before, but in the end, justice triumphs. They are also, by in large, the same people who refuse to wear masks or be vaccinated.
We need to work together to show that we are not afraid of the future.
Prayer for the Day
Source of our being, we praise and honor you,
You are the root of our faith and our hope for redemption;
You have given us the power of imagination
To transform the world from death to life
Your words catch our hearts as well as our minds
Teaching us the power of love and humility.
In the name of him who is the face of your righteousness,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented
Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize 1986 (1928-2016)
No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
Barbara Ehrenreich, American social commentator and writer
The wicked go astray from the womb; they err from their birth, speaking lies.
They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear.
So that it does not hear the voice of charmers or of the cunning enchanter.
Psalm 58: 4-5